Journalist

Uncategorized

It’s been a busy summer at the News Tribune, with an especially insane news cycle between the Grandma’s Marathon weekend (I finished my first half!) the president visiting and the PUC approving the Enbridge Line 3 replacement pipeline.

Sarah Hakel scrutinizes the ceiling in the master bedroom of a home in Cloquet she and her partner Tyler Franzen (right) look over with Edina Realty agent Chad Watczak on Thursday. The couple toured a dozen homes in the area at a time when dozens more are doing the same, driving up prices and frustrations in the housing market. Bob King photo.

In the aftermath of the fires that sent an ominous cloud of black smoke south of Lake Superior well into the evening, I investigated just how close a call it was: Hydrogen fluoride, if released into the atmosphere, could have sickened or even killed thousands. There are alternatives, but Husky would be a trailblazer if it stopped using the chemical.

I also found that while hydrogen fluoride is the greatest chemical risk in the region, it isn’t the only one. I made the map below to demonstrate:

Then there was President Trump coming to Duluth to stump for 8th Congressional District hopeful Pete Stauber in June. Since a Republican has won the district just once in the past 70 years, I asked a few experts: Why visit Duluth?

The week after that, the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission approved the Enbridge Line 3 replacement pipeline at an emotional meeting in St. Paul that Jimmy and I covered. With protests planned and more permits yet to secure, there will still be plenty to write about.

Jana Hollingsworth and I now comprise the Duluth News Tribune’s investigative reporting team, and I can’t thank my editors enough for the opportunity to focus on the biggest and best stories our readers deserve.

Right to it then —

It’s no secret that good day care is increasingly hard to come by, in Minnesota or elsewhere. But the reason so many providers are leaving the business? Cindy Giuliani decided to take a stand by contacting me and telling of a hostile work environment between licensors and providers, offering a window into a profession rarely seen as such.

For this story written by Peter Passi I contributed some data handiwork that also led to an interactive map. Nearly $149 million could be locked up in special tax districts in Duluth over the next few decades, starving county, city and school coffers of much-needed revenue. But could those taxpaying developments exist if not for this incentive?

My first story of 2018 was on the Year of the Woman, a local look at the national echo of 1992, and the top story of 2017 was our chasing of the Enbridge Line 3 replacement pipeline debate.

An employee climbs up to the cockpit of a crane at the IPS Crane shop in Duluth Tuesday afternoon. IPS Cranes rebuilds railroad cranes from the ground up at its Duluth facility. (Clint Austin / caustin@duluthnews.com)

And the news is hot. Kind of like our real estate market, which is causing some unhappiness up yonder.

Deeper problems lie within the rentalmarket, however, as Duluthians of all income levels are often stuck paying too much, searching too long or settling too fast for a limited supply of often lower-quality rentals.

Finally, I’m pleased to share I took first place in the Minnesota SPJ Best Beat Reporting category after submitting the manufacturing series I wrote last fall. Just grateful I get to tell these stories at all.

The old waterfront restaurant at the shuttered Red Lion hotel in Vancouver already looks miles different as a well-known local restrauteur prepares his new throwback vision for the upcoming Warehouse ’23. Photo by Natalie Behring.

Along the Columbia River in a nondescript warehouse sit a few unfinished yachts that will likely fetch about $35 million each. When I looked upon them and stood among workers of a dozen trades building the behemoths by hand, I thought yet again about what a great job I have.

Employees of Christensen Shipyards work aboard a megayacht under construction in Vancouver. Photo by Amanda Cowan.

After years of struggles, Vancouver’s luxury yacht builder Christensen Shipyards is emerging from the depths of debt and litigation. Or so the story goes.

Then of course there is the beat inside my beat — the nation’s largest oil terminal, proposed for the Port of Vancouver. While many stories can seem procedural, a few hearings saw plenty of action last month.

I also cover Clark Public Utilities, the electric utility for this county of 450,000. Staff there recently allowed too many people to sign up for solar incentives, which means people already enrolled and counting on that pool of state subsidies to break even on their investment could now see less money.

Jobs, housing and earnings can populate my weeks, though I also get to write the occasional column for Sunday’s section, stretching my voice and, who knows, maybe attracting some readers my age. Last week I wrote about my generation’s peculiar personal finance. Coming up: Who knows, maybe I’ll hang out at the mall?

Another one of my articles made the Associated Press wire, so I’ll let you read about electric cars and some of the county’s under-used, federally funded charging stations… at Oregon Public Broadcasting.

As you’ve seen from some of those stories, I’m keeping up on that whole do-it-all ethic by shooting many of my own photos. And as of Friday night, I’m a published sports photographer. Weirder things have happened.

Kelso’s Kady Bruce drives down the court against Columbia River in the Lassies’ Senior Night win Feb. 6. Photo by Brooks Johnson

That should do it for weekend reading for any of you who have stumbled upon this living document of my career. But it wouldn’t be this close to year’s end without a proper list, so let me present to you a few of my favorite ledes thus far at The Daily News:

Posts navigation

About

I’m an investigative reporter for the Duluth News Tribune in Duluth, Minn. I previously reported for The Columbian in Vancouver, Wash., and The Daily News in Longview, Wash. I’m a graduate of the University of Montana School of Journalism. Accountability is a good thing.